


Stories of the Second Self: Bigger Things to Come

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [86]
Category: National Guard - Fandom, Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:14:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22593868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Investigating the ruins of Columbus, Ohio, Captain Paul Appelbaum is approached by FBI officers. They call on Paul to check out a tunnel marked by magical glyphs and no obvioius signs of having been carved. Venturing into the perfectly formed tunnel, Paul finds that plant life somehow is thriving in the dark. Deeper in, he discovers animals among the forest, including fireflies that somehow give off sunlight. Completing the fairy tale environs is one more animal Paul can't believe is real, even in the age of Alter Idem.
Series: Alter Idem [86]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Bigger Things to Come

Bupkis. That was the word which constantly sprang up in Paul Appelbaum's mind. That is, amid countless Yiddish phrases rather on the more colorful side. He'd scoured Columbus for weeks after the last shots were fired. Still, Paul had little to go on for why the Gaia cult had centered their objectives on the now shattered ruin of Columbus, Ohio.

Talking to some of the Wild Strikers, Papa Foxtrot Airborne, or the Hotel Alphas of the 37th Special Troops Battalion who were werewolves, angels, and giants respectively, offered him precious little. Almost none of the Gaia movement were left, and those in captivity had zero magical knowledge. They were merely enamored by those who controlled the arcane and followed their orders zealously.

After the National Guard Construction Battalion and reservists had recovered their losses, salvaged equipment, and more or less cleared the roads for the Army Corps of Engineers, Paul's unit, the Special Information Group were the only Ohio Guard left in the city. The 37th had other battles to fight with more towns and cities in the state to secure.

Getting a lot of stares, Paul walked along the dust encrusted streets and through zoning lots sifting for clues. The city was still empty of civilians, but populated by imported construction firms, state and federal employees, and one security contractor that, as Paul was promised, could be relied upon. Virtually all of them were human, making Paul the most visible person in the recovery operation.

"Ask the big guy," Paul overheard from a neighboring lot not far from Scioto Audubon Metro Park.

Paul looked over to see one of two Army Corps of Engineers thumbing toward him, and a pair of men in crisp black suits who couldn't be more obvious as being from some federal agency.

"Excuse me, soldier," one of the suited men called out, while he and his partner tramped over debris that shifted under them. "I need to talk to you."

Given that the entire state, indeed the whole country was still under a federally declared emergency, Paul took this to mean he was subordinate to the civilian agent, and got up to close the gap with him. "Yes sir. How can I help you?"

The two men craned their necks up at Paul, as the first spoke, "What is your name and unit?"

"Captain Paul Appelbaum," he answered, and dropped to one padded knee as a courtesy to the smaller men. "Special Information Group, Ohio National Guard, sir."

"Special Agent Innis Mecham, FBI," the first agent said, "This is our officer in charge, Bill Harris. Isn't there a number associated with your unit?"

"We were just assembled early last year, and our command structure not yet formalized," Paul explained, "I was recruited and commissioned to help the Guard deal with elements that they were-- as you can imagine, simply unprepared to address."

"All these metaphysical phenomena, you mean?" Agent Mecham bid for clarification. "What's your assessment of the groups the Guard fought here?"

"Some christian fundamentalists," Paul began to describe, "Ah, the 37th encountered what appears to be a coalition of vampires and humans, then there was the Gaia cult."

"Can you confirm reports of these so-called powers employed against the National Guard?" Agent Harris asked.

"Yes sir," Paul promptly answered and issued a concise description, "There appeared to be a form of combustion that was under user direction as to what it consumed. We also found plant samples that responded to intelligent control, namely the enchanted vines and some sort of tree that launched barbs. I have a redacted report of the rest, if you want it."

"What about carved symbols?" Harris asked.

"Some of the Gaia combatants did have paints applied, and with those seemed to be empowered with higher forms of weaponized phenomena," Paul detailed with a nod of his head.

"I need you to take a look at this," Harris informed him and turned back to the other lot. "A construction team found this before dawn."

Following behind them, Paul sensed something intangible welling up, like a feeling of his that sent tremors out along his limbs. By the time he saw was the Army Corps of Engineers were studying, Paul guessed it was associated with the Gaia Cult.  
"It's full effect isn't apparent in broad daylight," Mecham said, and then accepted a clipboard from an engineer.

In the ruins of a parking garage one stretch of cement-lined underground remained standing, whereas the rest of the structure had crumbled around it. Agent Mecham held up the clipboard on the cement wall of the opening to shield it from the sun. The smoothly carved character emitted a faint glow, and Paul's inner sensation pulsed in time with it.

"It's some sort of rune or glyph," Agent Harris said, "but without a language expert on hand we don't know its meaning. I don't want to send agents in there until I have some idea of what they'll find."

"You want me to go." Paul wasn't asking a question.

"With respect, Captain Appelbaum," Harris replied, "You're the safest immediate option. You have access to better firepower than we got, and you know more about this stuff than our guys."

"Fair enough," Paul accepted, "Wouldn't be the first time I ran a solo recon mission. For the record, that rune isn't something I know anything about either, and when I report back you're going to be hard pressed to believe anything I tell you, even after you see it."

"Do you need anything from me?" Agent Harris asked.

"Operational flexibility and discretion," Paul answered, as he stared into the deep shadow that was the underground parking corridor. "Also a secure channel of communication if you have it."

"That last one I can't give," Agent Harris said, "Cell networks are still down. Radio and satellite networks are compromised."

"Well then," Paul consigned himself out loud, and produced a improvised recorder build for his hand size. "I'll log what I find to be recovered in case I don't make it back."

With that, Paul went back for his gear and giant-scale weapons; the twenty millimeter cannon with minigun undermount and a shotgun rebuilt to serve as a sidearm.

"Good luck, Captain," Harris called to Paul's back as he started down the parking garage.

The first thing to immediately occur to Paul, as he started down on his hands and knees, is that the cement of the walls seemed to transition to something else.

It was subtle at first, but as the ceiling seemed to descend at a shallower slope than the floor. Paul realized the appearance of a grain in the walls was something closer to limestone. By the time Paul could transition into a stooped-over walk, the tunnel no longer looked to be the result of engineering.

Smells of debris, Cordite, and residues from explosives were replaced with more Earthy scents, and Paul thought he heard fluttering and skittering further into the dark. He turned on a halogen light on his webgear and produced a Maglite.

The latter source of illumination used four D-cell batteries, but in Paul's hand felt more like the smaller models powered by Double-A's. Clicking on his recorder, Paul studied the ceiling that was now high enough for him to stand fully upright.

"The runes are quite far apart from each other," Paul remarked on a second set. "I'd say it's more than a hundred meters from those at the entrance. The design looks to be identical, and exhibits the same metaphysical throbbing I sensed from the first."

Turning the hand light away and back again confirmed to Paul that it glowed best with the least light on it. Curious, he turned off both lights and saw the glyph glowed enough to light up much of the wall around it.

A tap further ahead jolted Paul, who hastily turned on both lights. He aimed the larger webgear light down the corridor but he saw no movement.

"This isn't what I need to deal with," Paul muttered to himself, feeling more claustrophobic now than when he had to crawl.

Feeling less sure by the moment, Paul reflected on his first reconnaissance into Columbus. He'd gotten civilians out, including a child who had manifested angelic traits, but he also stumbled into the Gaia Cult without any awareness of who they were or what they wanted.

Though, Paul knew from an autopsy report, their leader, a Fae woman named Ladonna was killed by a drone strike. From the antler points she was considered the upper crust of a Fae caste system rapidly developing throughout the country and possibly the world. The elder Fae appeared to muster more magical talent than any other, and Fae in general appeared to have an edge over other supernaturals now referred to as Pentacastes.

Could the Fae have figured out a new method of magic application? Paul wondered about that, as he paced along the gently descending shaft. His own gifts didn't grant him power over stone in the manner he was seeing here.

Granted, Paul suspected his own cultural filters shaped the power into metaphors he understood best. He conjectured that the imagery of Gaia, the Greek titan of the earth was what allowed Ladonna and her best-trained followers to manipulate the bedrock running through the middle of the state of Ohio, and who knew where else.

Before he realized it, Paul discovered that his tire-tread boots weren't just grinding against stone any longer. The scrapes he heard and felt under his feet were akin to a thin spread of loose soil. Turning the flashlight down, Paul realized that the dull gray of limestone was concealed under a deep brown of healthy soil, however shallow that layer was.

"I've uncovered dirt down here," Paul said aloud, and turned his light back the way he came from. "I'm guessing I am about five to six hundred meters in. Given the Gaia Cult ideology, I highly doubt they would've used heavy machinery or vehicles to dump this in here. However, it appears to grow more abundant further in."

The first signs of natural life fell under his illumination. Paul knelt down at the drop of green that was more intense for its rarity down here. Pinching the dirt around it, Paul picked up the tiny sprout to examine closer. "Some kind of ground cover plant here. Based on my gardening experience, the species is a Creeping Flox, which is native to Ohio.

"Makes sense," Paul added, and shrugged at the thought. "Wouldn't want species invasive to the region to spread if you're an ideology that's all about nature's balance."

Rather than simply discard the plant, Paul carefully placed it back exactly where he discovered it, and secured the soil back around its roots. Standing back up, Paul smiled at the small but audacious ground cover. He wondered how it was growing so far from daylight.

The answer came from more skittering and buzzing. Paul turned off his larger halogen light and covered up his hand light with his thumb.

"Fireflies," Paul observed, "Except these are unusually bright and the color lighter, like-- the sun."

Approaching the free roaming insects, Paul noticed the plant life also become more prolific deeper into the tunnel. The corridor itself was still squared with flat walls and ceiling, making him sure this was all by someone's design. Other small creatures roamed, such as beetles, but it was the fireflies that caught Paul's interest.

When one landed, Paul was able to see its features more easily. He was stunned by the insect's proportions. "Rather like fairies. I don't yet know if these are the result of Alter Idem itself, or if they were created by spellcraft. We had reports of spells that accelerated growth, however direct spawning of new life hasn't yet been observed."

A crack of something hard against stone caught Paul's ear. Paul uncovered his hand light to penetrate further into the darkness. The movement caught his eye, and he concentrated on making out the shape entering his awareness.

Not as large as himself, Paul knew it was bigger than a human, though not by much. Two ears stood high and, if he gauged right, both swiveled his way. A swishing motion completed the picture of what animal he bore witness to.

Paul could see it standing in the shadow of firefly light, as if it were waiting for him. At first, he took it to be a small horse, but when the head turned slightly, a spire he hadn't noticed before moved with it.

Sooner expecting it to thrive in some hidden forest, Paul's jaw dropped at the realization that he looked upon a unicorn.

Paul remarked on his find. "I'm seeing what, for lack of a more academic term, is a unicorn. Pearl colored coat. The hooves are split more like those of a goat, so score one for traditionalists who loath comparisons to horses. Its alicorn spirals pretty much like you'd expect, and the face has as much similarity to a mountain goat as a horse.

"The body too, is more streamlined with a smaller stomach," Paul continued to describe, "And muscular atop it all, like this animal was hitting the gym. Maybe it doesn't need to ferment plant matter like ruminants."

Paul stopped his narration when he felt a positiveness emanating from the alicorn rising from the animal's forehead. There was no sense of purpose from the energy he felt, nothing akin to chanted spells or the glyphs in the tunnel, just raw essence that left no impression of good or evil.

As he stood staring, the unicorn abruptly trotted away with a carefree rise in its gate, as though performing a show. Paul unconsciously followed it with his light, to discover many passages leading off in different directions, and all filled with dense light-dependent ecology.

"I have no idea how it's possible," Paul at last regained sense to speak, "But, there's an entire forest down here. It's not just some cave filled with bats, but I see birds, insects, including the particularly bright fireflies, and pretty much everything else you'd expect in some fairy tale cartoon."


End file.
